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ANDOVER, Mass. – As part of a
settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor, P. Gioioso and Sons
Inc., a Hyde Park contractor with a long history of violating excavation
safety standards, has agreed to pay a $200,000 fine for exposing its
employees to cave-in hazards. The contractor also will significantly
overhaul its safety practices to minimize trenching hazards and enhance
worker safety.

P. Gioioso and Sons Inc., which primarily works on underground water
and sewer mains, has been cited nine times since 2000 by the
department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for
violations of OSHA's trenching and excavation safety standards, most
recently in 2011 at work sites in Cambridge and Framingham.

OSHA found employees working in unprotected trenches at both locations
and issued citations carrying $354,000 in proposed fines. Gioioso
contested the citations. The department's regional solicitor's office
crafted the settlement agreement, which goes beyond simple correction of
the cited hazards.

"The company will be paying a hefty fine, but more importantly, it will
be investing heavily in the safety and health of all of its workers
through a very significantly ramped up safety and health program," said
Christine Eskilson, OSHA's counsel in the department's Regional Office
of the Solicitor in Boston. "This company has now committed itself to
entirely re-engineering its safety and health processes, and we intend
to hold the company to that commitment."

In addition to paying the fine, Gioioso will notify OSHA of all
excavation jobs to be undertaken by the company in the next three years,
and allow OSHA inspectors free access to enter and inspect the work
sites without a warrant, as well as provide documents related to the
work being performed at the sites. Gioioso also will develop and put
into effect a comprehensive safety and health program that includes an
annual audit by an independent, qualified safety and health consultant.
Finally, the company will develop and implement a permit system for all
of its excavations that will identify and evaluate the hazards of each
operation prior to digging, and specify the means by which those hazards
will be controlled.

"We are pleased that this employer has decided to make a meaningful
commitment to safety by pledging resources and upgrading its excavation
practices, as well as implementing a comprehensive safety and health
program," said Marthe Kent, OSHA's regional administrator for New
England. "We encourage other employers to explore and pursue this
approach to better safeguard their employees against everyday work site
hazards."